Even listed alongside a cop killer, wanton murderers, and a child rapist, three men considered for parole in June rise in Virgin Islands infamy: the last Fountain Valley killers behind bars.
Warren Emmanuel Ballentine and Beaumont Gereau were 23 when their bungled golf course robbery left eight dead and as many as eight wounded in 1972. Meral Smith was 22. They, and 20-year-old Raphael Joseph and 25-year-old Ishmael LaBeet, the alleged ringleader, were convicted in August 1973 and sentenced to eight consecutive life sentences plus 90 years.
The mass killing was dubbed the Fountain Valley Massacre.
The crime’s racial overtones and prolonged manhunt shocked Crucians and sparked headlines across the U.S. mainland, causing St. Croix to fall off vacation planners’ recommendation lists.
The unwanted attention resurfaced New Year’s Eve 1984 when LaBeet hijacked a prison plane and escaped to Cuba.
Joseph, a reluctant participant in the killings, was freed in 1994 after Gov. Alexander Farrelly commuted his sentence. He was found dead in 1998. The medical examiner’s report said the cause of death was unclear; Joseph had a heart condition and had alcohol and amphetamines in his system at the time of death.
Ballentine, Gereau, and Smith have remained in prison, most recently at Florida’s Citrus County Detention Facility. A parole board will consider their release June 7.
The parole board will also consider the release of other prisoners convicted of Virgin Islands crimes.
In June 2016, Tydel John was sentenced to 50 years in prison for a dozen counts of child abuse, aggravated rape, and unlawful sexual contact. John was a 55-year-old schoolteacher when he was first arrested in 2007 for inappropriately touching a 10-year-old girl. Over the next three years, John, sometimes going by Tydell John, was accused of illegal interactions with at least nine girls under the age of 13.
John gained community trust at Eulalie Rivera Elementary School, presenting research at a 2005 education conference called Student Aspirations in the Elementary School. St. Croix residents were aghast when a judge allowed John to travel to the mainland, unsupervised, to collect a diploma for online coursework in 2008. The parole board will consider his release June 7.
In 1994, Maurice Richardson and four other men ambushed Virgin Islands Police officer Steven Hodge. Richardson confessed to lying on the ground outside Hodges then opening fire, according to court records. Hodge was shot 14 times by at least two other people using four different guns, according to court records. He died on March 27, 1994, just a few days before his 27th birthday.
In 1996, a St. Thomas Superior Court jury found Richardson guilty on a host of charges, including first-degree murder, which carried an automatic life sentence. Ten years later, Richardson was charged with killing another inmate at the Golden Grove Correction Facility in a prison yard brawl. Richardson and three other men stabbed 23-year-old Timothy Heidman to death with makeshift shanks, police said.
The parole board will consider his release June 5.
In March 2019, Jahani Joseph agreed to serve 15 years in prison for shooting a man seven times while robbing him in the Hospital Ground area in 2016. Joseph fled to Atlanta after the crime but was captured after an auto accident and extradited back to the Virgin Islands.
Joseph, now 32, pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted murder and using an unlicensed firearm during the commission of an attempted first-degree murder. Miraculously, Joseph’s victim survived the attack. The parole board will consider his release June 2.
In July 2023, Jackoy Mulraine beat a woman senseless as she was holding her child. The woman had objected to Mulraine groping her friend. An irate Mulraine threatened to leave the St. Thomas deli and return with a firearm to kill everyone present. He then beat the woman so severely that she needed hospitalization, according to court records.
Seven months earlier, Mulraine had been arrested in possession of a cache of firearms. The parole board will consider his release June 2.
In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Rasokemo Archibald pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in February 2024 and avoided 17 additional charges, including murder, in the death of a man in July 2020 in a Smith Bay hotel. Archibald, an auto mechanic and father of three, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
It was at least Archibald’s fourth felony arrest in the Virgin Islands, according to court records. In 2023, Archibald completed
In 2011, Jalani Williams was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 2009 murder of 25-year-old Almonzo Williams. Just 16 at the time of the killing, Williams and two other men conspired to kill Williams in the early hours of Aug. 2, 2009, near Gertrude’s Restaurant, where a dance was being held. Nearly 50 shots were fired, 13 piercing and killing the victim. Police later found Jalani Williams in possession of the .380-caliber automatic weapon that fired many of the shots.
After deliberating for more than 10 hours, the jury found Jalani Williams and 30-year-old Joh Williams guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree assault, unauthorized possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence, and reckless endangerment. Khareem Hughes, 20, was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment.
Jalani Williams was originally sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, but a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling made the sentence unconstitutional, given that Williams was a minor when he committed the crime. In May 2016, his sentence was changed to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
The parole board will hear his request June 2.
The board will also hear the parole request of Kishawn Smith, who in 2006 killed his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend with a bullet to the head during an argument in a St. Thomas housing community courtyard, according to court records. Smith was convicted of second-degree murder and carrying a firearm during the commission of a crime. In 2003, Smith had been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition but the charges were dropped after a mistrial.
In January 2024, Zamouy Rodriguez pleaded guilty and was sentenced for third-degree assault and discharging or aiming a firearm. Rodriguez was sentenced to eight years, avoiding attempted murder and related charges.
In May 2024, Amari Krigger was sentenced to 10 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter, avoiding first-degree murder charges through a plea agreement for the killing of 51-year-old Eustace “Tiger” Samuels, according to court records. Krigger was 20 when he killed Samuels in 2019.
In 2017, Krigger had been charged with burglary, assault, discharging or aiming a weapon, and other offenses. In 2018, he was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number and unlawful possession of ammunition, according to court records.
Edictor Esquillin was found guilty of first-degree assault for a 2019 incident but not guilty of murder, mayhem, and weapons charges. During his June 2022 trial, Esquillin screamed obscenities in the courtroom, leading to a contempt of court finding.
Manuel Davis has had the attention of the Virgin Islands Police Department since he was a child. In February 2012, Davis slipped away from his mother’s home, prompting a police search across St. Croix for the 14-year-old. Four months later, he escaped a youth rehabilitation center while attending a program in Estate Sion Farm, prompting a criminal manhunt for the 15-year-old.
In May 2014, a 17-year-old Davis and another boy escaped the V.I. Behavioral Services Boys Group Home, prompting another manhunt. Then again in November, he fled again, having wriggled out a window.
In 2017, Davis faced reckless endangerment, assault, and weapons charges that were later dropped.
In July 2018, Davis, now going by Matatan, which is Dominican slang for boss man, was arrested for the killing of 23-year-old Alex Gonzalez. He faced murder and weapons charges as he was sought again by police in June 2020 in connection with a shooting that left a man injured at the Ruby M. Rouss Housing Community.
In February 2021, Davis and another Golden Grove inmate were charged in the attempted murder of two other inmates. Davis allegedly attacked a man with a knife.
Three of Davis’ cases were eventually combined by the court, where he faced 22 charges that included attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, weapons offenses, and other crimes. In a deal with prosecutors, Davis pleaded guilty to first and third-degree assault. Other charges were dropped. He was sentenced to two five-year prison terms to be served concurrently in May 2023.
The parole board will consider his release June 2. The following inmates’ pleas for release will also be considered:
Shakieme Freeman was found guilty of firearm offenses in 2017. He’d been found guilty of similar charges in 2011.
Skak-I Ward, also known as Fatman and Lilo, has been incarcerated for third-degree assault since November 2024, having signed a deal with prosecutors to serve three years in prison in exchange for more serious assault and firearms charges being dropped.
Predawn Christmas morning 2023, Ward approached two men playing dominoes in Bovoni that he assumed were bad-mouthing him. Ward pulled out a pistol and fired but the gun malfunctioned. As one of the men attempted to wrestle the handgun away, it fired, grazing the other man’s cheek.
Ottley Smith, Carl Fleming, and Deon Clendinen were convicted of 2022 assaults. Vaughn Lee McHargue was convicted of grand larceny and aiding and abetting for a 2021 incident
